Overview of Pelvic Pain

Pelvic and Abdominal Pain

(and endometriosis) by Frederick R. Jelovsek MD

Intermittant lower abdominal pain

I am 26 years old and experiencing diffuse, intermittent lower abdominal pain. No vaginal discharge. No pain on urination. Menstrual cycle has been erratic, both in frequency and duration. Also experiencing minor fatigue, though I'm not sure it's related. There is a history of breast cancer in my family. Any help would be appreciated.

Need to know what makes the pain worse and is there any thing that makes it better? Also is it related in any way to the menses even though they are irregular (and how irregular?)? How intermittent is the pain and is it associated with sexual relations, use of tampons etc.?

Nothing makes the pain worse but lying on my side seems to make lessen the pain a bit. It is not related to menstruation. My cycle varies sometimes a couple of weeks. I've had many occasions where I've missed a cycle.

And lastly the pain is not associated with sexual contact and I do not use tampons. The pain is intermittent, occurring on and off from day to day. But the pain is not constant, meaning it does not occur 24 hours a day.

Assuming the pain does not get worse or better with either bowel movements or with passing your urine and you don't have an abnormally high frequency of voiding or passing stool, the next step would be to have an abdominal pelvic ultrasound to see if there are any anomalies of the ovaries or uterus.

What may be going on is very difficult to say without an exam. The only abnormality you describe except for the pain is menstrual irregularity. While this can be due to different causes, polycystic ovarian disease comes to mind.

Sometimes it is associated with pain just as recurrent cysts of the ovaries. Sometimes there are endocrine problems such as Addison's disease.

You have probably looked at the differential diagnosis list for chronic pelvic pain. As you can see, there are many possibilities.

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peta2702Hi there, I have a few problems going on and I am not sure what to do. I hope you may be able to clarify a couple of questions for me? November 2012 I started having bouts of diarrhoea then constipation/bloating and at times an urgency to open my bowel. Then after a few months I started getting bleeding and mucus from my bowel. I Had a colonoscopy in April 2013, a polyp was removed and the bowel was a little inflamed but all was good. They said it was IBS? July/Aug 2013 I had a bladder infection that took 3 courses of antibiotics to clear (never had a uti in my life). Since then my bladder has not been the same? I feel like I am on the verge of getting an infection all the time, my bladder is very very uncomfortable when it is full but feels better when empty and I have a lot of strange pelvic/cervix pain that runs down my legs. Feb 2014 I visited a gyno who did a pap smear and urine test which were both normal. A pelvic ultrasound and a pelvic MRI showed a 1.9cm nabothian cyst in the cervix and a small 4mm fibroid in the uterus. Ovaries normal. Now I am NOT getting my period when due although I do get a little smudge of pink on the toilet paper at different times of the month.
I am still having bowel problems although I take "Osmolax and Physillium" daily which helps. My question is: Do you think the bowel/bladder/cervix problems are all related? Is there a chance the nabothian cyst has blocked my cervix and if so is this a problem? I am 43yrs with 3 children, not taking OCP. Thank you :-)

5 years ago

ClairieaHi I wonder if u can help me!
I have for the last 3 days have had some left side abdominal pain that's lower and high and on my side, I have just started having slight bleeding but its not like a normal period it's very light, I don't have periods really I have one every now and then but even then they are not heavy I am not on any contraception. I am very worried as everything I have seen on the Internet says it's signs of cancer which scares the life out of me!
Please could you tell me what this could be?